


Nine Things That Happened In Otogakure (And Two Things That Happened Nearby)

by Rosse



Category: Naruto
Genre: Blood, Disturbing Themes, Drabbles, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-21
Updated: 2014-02-21
Packaged: 2018-01-13 07:47:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1218217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rosse/pseuds/Rosse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"He had always wondered if the body transfer eventually decays the mind."</p><p>Events just after the end of part 1, as seen in the Sound. Possibly disturbing themes. Lots of reminiscing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nine Things That Happened In Otogakure (And Two Things That Happened Nearby)

When he closes his eyes, he remembers.

He can see the bodies stretched out throughout the rooms he carved underground to keep hidden from the village, smell the overpowering disinfectant which still barely conceals dried blood. He mentally runs through every body that failed - too weak, unable to sustain the cells or endure the tests he ran - and remembering which ones were just corpses he never returned to the ANBU like he should have.

They were worthless cannon fodder nin from nameless villages; the ANBU didn’t miss a thing.

***

When Sasuke activates the sharingan, Kabuto notices the way Orochimaru tenses.

He never asks why it happens; while information’s useful, safety is even more so and Kabuto can easily recall times years ago - when their relationship was still blooming, trust a precious commodity between the two - when Kabuto asked a question too much and found himself far too close to a kunai at his throat.

Nowadays, he doesn’t push it. There are more silent ways to gather that information after all.

Orochimaru’s body relaxes when Sasuke leaves.

***

When he falls asleep, the same dream always greets him.

It starts in Konoha, pressed into a corner of a restaurant with heads bowed, low chatter that changes with each night he closes his eyes. Sometimes it’s a mission, a discussion of tactics and routes to take.

Most of the time, it means nothing. Idle chatter fills his mind like the meaningless blur it always was - “How was your day?” “Did you see what my brats -- students -- did today? I swear, I’m going to use them for target practice tomorrow.” - while his fingers weave chopsticks through his food in random patterns, not touching it. Jiraiya will shout something too loudly, boast of sexual conquests and Tsunade will smack him over the head and through the restaurant wall. The owner will shout and they fade away and return, standing at the Valley.

It always goes this way. Jiraiya exhausted, more battered than Tsunade’s fists had left him while she desperately channels her chakra into separating and healing them both.

_You can still come back, Sarutobi won’t do anything if we both keep an eye on you!_

He wakes up, cold and swearing he’ll put all his energy into devising a jutsu that allows him to go without sleep.

***

When Kabuto realises that Orochimaru’s been deep within the lab for six days, he merely shrugs.

Sasuke’s getting impatient, whatever training he’s doing alone - or under the supervision of Kabuto - clearly isn’t enough. He wants more, power that Orochimaru’s right hand man doesn’t have (or isn’t willing to share), combat experience that can only come from the lazy, berating style that Orochimaru knows frustrates his new charge so. Kabuto tells Sasuke that if he wants Orochimaru’s attention, he’ll have to go get it himself.

Sasuke returns to his quarters looking terrified in a way that satisfies Kabuto.

***

When he returns to his quarters (two weeks later), he’s covered in blood.

While this in and of itself isn’t unusual in any way - autopsies were rarely clean, after all - the volume of it, clinging dry and dirtied to his skin and clothes and hair, makes everyone shrink back. Even his right hand, as used to death and science as he is, finds himself taking pause. It brings Orochimaru a grim sense of pleasure to go to his shower completely undisturbed where he would normally be fielding questions from the few members of his Reich that he allows contact (Sasuke would ask for more training, impatient and agitated, eyes whirling red while Kabuto would attempt to bring him up to speed with developments in the prisons and Karin would shout that it’s her job to talk about that, shut up dammit!)

The blood drains off him, washing away with too much ease as he stands under the shower and Orochimaru closes his eyes, recounts his failures once again.

***

When he leaves the compound, he does so without his own face.

There are kinds of questions one can do without, on certain days. Questions like “Hey, isn’t that the...?” and sudden attacks when they realise he can still slip into the village with too much ease. He doesn’t need to find the eyes of hunters lording over him, dragging him by his hair to the Hokage. His strength isn’t up to par lately, even with the new body Orochimaru can feel something tearing away at him.

He bites back a laugh, stares into the rock face of Tsunade and orders a sake in the civilian quarters, knowing it couldn’t be his soul.

***

When he makes his way back, he decides to visit the Valley.

Nostalgia pushes at his mind, those nighttime memories dancing too clearly before his eyes. Tsunade hadn’t been there in reality, but his dreams had her there as vividly as Jiraiya. This place never changes, he observes idly, watching the flow of the river from Senju’s head, his eyes catching the matching carving of Uchiha Madara.

Those eyes infuriate him and Orochimaru breaks his wrist sending a chakra laden punch to the cliff face.

***

When he returns with his wrist broken and a face like thunder, Kabuto kicks Sasuke in the stomach with such surprising quickness and force that he ends up in the wall of the laboratory.

He works silently and quickly, watching keenly as he administers the healing. Kabuto thinks it’s all coming together, Orochimaru’s souring mood since the body transfer, the way he seems to want to avoid Sasuke at all costs. He sees the way Orochimaru’s mouth remains in a thin, grim line even as Kabuto tells him of all the good news - Sasuke is getting closer to the strength Orochimaru demands of his hosts, the village is running smoothly and Kabuto has results from his own seal experiments. All in all, a success. But not even a flicker of a smirk or a spark of light show across his face. Just the same grim line.

Kabuto tries mentioning that Jiraiya had been sighted nearby and finds himself dodging Orochimaru’s snakes.

He had always wondered if the body transfer eventually decays the mind.

***

When he feels Jiraiya’s chakra at the edge of his land, Orochimaru breaks the kunai in his grip and feels his hand wince in protest.

Sasuke yells in anger when Orochimaru disappears in a cloud of smoke (he’ll later hear from Kabuto about how Sasuke took out all his rage on a prisoner Orochimaru had been planning on experimenting on, skewering him - non-fatally - with Chidori) but that chakra grates against his sensors beyond anything he can tolerate at the moment. He withdraws Kusanagi, shouts at Jiraiya to get out of hiding because he really cannot be bothered with the way the past keeps weighing on him.

Even the Uchiha brat’s eyes were beginning to remind him of Jiraiya’s Amegakure charges, and the stories he told after returning to Konoha.

***

When Sasuke openly tells Orochimaru that he didn’t come here to be ignored by a forgetful idiot, Kabuto’s ears prick with curiosity and he finishes cleaning his knives with amusement.

He hears the door slam, watches - through the mirrors in the laboratory, of course - as Sasuke stalks back to a training room, buzzing with electricity. The walls of the compound shake; Kabuto sighs. He’s becoming more unstable. Quite the feat, most would say, but Kabuto knows better. He’d never do something so careless.

Not normally, anyway.

***

When he closes his eyes, he remembers.

He watches his teammates dance around his memories, fighting in thin air and laughing hollowly. He remembers the sound of bells and the cool feeling of snakeskin in his fingers as the warm breeze of a village far too close and too far caresses his face invisibly. He remembers narrowing his eyes and driving a kunai through the heart of his opponent at the chuunin exams. (It had been his first kill and he’d shaken imperceptably, heart throbbing wildly as blood poured out onto his hands. He remembers that it didn’t disturb him as much as everyone else, and that the exams were more ruthless than in years following, where such behaviour would have seen the fight broken up.) He remembers Sarutobi’s eyes crinkled in concern, watching him a little more closely after that event. He remembers fucking- fucking Jiraiya and his damnable pranks getting all three of them in trouble even when they were promoted to Jonin.

He remembers all of it and sheds his skin, pretending for a moment like it’ll help him forget.


End file.
